ISSF Junior World Championship: Yashaswini Singh Deswal wins 10m air pistol gold

New Delhi: Yashaswini Singh Deswal on Sunday won a gold at the women’s 10m air pistol event to help India consolidate their second position in the medals tally at the end of day two of the ISSF Junior World Championship rifle/pistol in Suhl, Germany.

Yashaswini shot like a dream throughout the day and after topping qualifying round clear two points ahead of the second placed qualifier, overcame a sedate start to nail the eight-women final, ending with a world record equalling finals score of 235.9.

Her effort helped India consolidate their second position in the medals tally with two gold, one silver and one bronze. China top the standings till now.

So dominating was Yashaswini’s performance in the final that second placed Korean Woori Kim’s effort of 231.8 was not even close. Guilia Campostrini of Italy won the bronze in the event.

Yashaswini’s fifth shot in the final was an effort of 7.8, which put her in third position after the first five shots. She moved further down to fifth in the second series of five shots, but recovered fantastically, and after going into the lead after the 13th shot, never looked back.

This is Yashaswini’s ninth final at the youth and junior level over the past three years and her first gold. She had last year won silver at the Junior World Cup stage at the same venue and an Asian Championship bronze back in 2014.

Earlier in the day, India won a bronze to hold on to their second place in the medals tally, with the help of a gallant fourth place finish by Saurabh Chaudhary in the men’s 10m air pistol individual event.

Saurabh’s performance on the day meant that trio of Anmol and Arjun Singh Cheema apart from Saurabh himself, claimed the team bronze in the event.

Saurabh, Anmol and Arjun logged a combined score of 1,718 to finish behind silver medallists Korea, who had a team score of 1,720.

Russia, with a combined score of 1,724 won the team gold in the event.

Earlier, Saurabh notched up a score of 578 in the individual qualification round to finish third among 98 competing shooters.

Among them, Ukraine’s Pavlo Korostylov, who had earlier this month won a gold in the same event at the third senior World Cup stage in Munich. Pavlo finished second on the same score.

In his first final at this level, Saurabh despite a shaky start recovered brilliantly but eventually settled for fourth position with a score of 198. Boram Choe of Korea won gold with a junior world record finals score of 241.1 ahead of Pavlo, who won silver with a score of 239.9.

Italy’s Paolo Monna won bronze with a score of 218.3.